Arctic Monkeys' online buzz creates huge sales

LONDON — The Arctic Monkeys are set to make musical history this week with the fastest-selling debut album of all time in Britain.

But the real news is how the rock band achieved its fame -- not by riding a music-industry publicity wave, but by connecting with fans directly through the Internet.

The band's new album, "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not," sold more than 100,000 copies Monday, the day of its release. By the weekend, it's widely expected to surpass the 306,631 copies that the group Hearsay sold the week in March 2001 that its debut album "Popstars" appeared.

Many online music experts say the Arctic Monkeys' success heralds a new era in the world of entertainment.

The technology-savvy musicians posted demos on their Web site for free downloading and generated their own publicity about performances.

"The Arctic Monkeys were successful because they used a range of channels to connect with their fans, including distributing CDs at their gigs and providing a wealth of information at their site beyond just their music," said Charles Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.

"Arctic Monkeys are decisive proof that this works," the critic Dorian Lynskey wrote in The Guardian newspaper, adding that the band's songs became "much-loved anthems before they've even been released."

Before the band had a video or a promoter, it had toured Japan, France, Germany and the United States. It will soon tour the United States again, with a gig scheduled at La Zona Rosa in Austin, Texas, March 17.

The band's popularity snowballed even more after signing last year with Domino Records.

Its first commercially released single, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor," shot to No. 1 on the British pop charts when it was released in October.

Its second single, "When the Sun Goes Down" -- about a prostitute and a pimp -- went straight to No. 1 when it was released Sunday.

The band, from Sheffield in northern England, includes singer Alex Turner, 19, guitarist Jamie Cook, 20, bassist Andy Nicholson, 19, and drummer Matt Helders, 19. All four still live at home with their parents.

The Arctic Monkeys success is due to both its talent and its timing. After years of growth, online music is reaching a tipping point. In general, sales of music over the Internet and cell phones have skyrocketed over the past year, generating $1.1 billion for record companies in 2005 compared with $380 million in 2004, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in London.

Music fans downloaded 420 million single tracks from the Internet last year -- 20 times more than two years earlier.

IFPI Chairman John Kennedy said that in Britain and Germany, two of the biggest digital markets worldwide, legal buyers from sites such as MSN, iTunes and Musicload actually exceed illegal file-swappers.

Music industry analysts say that after Arctic Monkeys' success, unknown bands will increasingly turn to the Internet to build followings.

"Entertainers are increasingly trying to get to fans directly to get around the bottlenecks created by the major labels," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, a technology research firm in California. "There are a large number of very good artists that just don't get the star treatment and a growing number of stars who are becoming fed up with their labels."

"The Internet provides a powerful way to get around these problems, and artists are starting to learn how to use it to reach out to fans," said Golvin of Forrester Research.